Arsenal Takeover? by SB
The richest businessman of Africa wants to purchase Arsenal football club. Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian billionaire who is best known for being 67th on the Forbes rich list. He now wants to top it by pulling a coup of buying Arsenal.
Dangote is a self-professed fan of the Gunners. He has an estimated wealth of £11.5 billion and confesses to being a supporter since the 1980s. He believes that building an oil refinery in his homeland of Nigeria will get him enough financial muscle to oversee a takeover.
It is not the first time that Dangote is interested in buying a stake at the club. Back in 2011, he was rumored to be interested in purchasing the 15.9% stake sold at £123 million by Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith. That was eventually purchased by the American Stan Kroenke.
Incidentally, Kroenke is the club’s majority shareholder, owning 66.64% of the club’s parent company Arsenal Holdings plc. Alisher Usmanov, the charismatic Russian-Uzbek also owns 29.11% of the club.
Dangote backtracked on his interest in 2011 because he thought that the prices were too steep. Also, he wanted to finalize his industrialization plans in Nigeria. With everything else settled, Dangote now wants to grab a stake at his favorite club.
The wealthy Nigerian believes that the club requires new direction, strategically. He thinks that a different ownership will help the club get back to glory days and be more successful on the pitch.
How will it change Arsenal?
It is no secret that Arsenal fell behind the neo-rich clubs in England and Europe. Arsene Wenger is well-known for his criticism of running the clubs commercially. He never wants to splash cash for the sake of spending it.
But, clubs around Arsenal are not shy of splashing the cash. Chelsea started the trend with Roman Abramovich not getting tired of spending money on players to win success. Manchester City then joined the league with the oil-rich Sheik Mansour buying success for the club. Manchester United too falls in this league but their financial muscle comes more from their marketing wings.
Arsenal fans have for long wanted their club to give their richer counterparts a run for their money. There were many instances where Arsenal was jostled in the transfer market and priced out of deals.
A wealthy investor is never an answer to all the financial problems of the transfer market. Wenger believes in prudent usage of funds and has built the club around the same principle. There is no reason to believe that the impending arrival of Dangote will change anything drastically….
Sridhar
Not commenting…….. Tho, that was a comment
5 Dollars from SoOpa Aeon, 10 pounds from Charlie Champagne, 23 dollars from DavidNZ, 2,500 Dollars from Hafiz [put your money where your mouth is, Hafiz] plus millions more Gooners from around the world chipping in with the odd cowries on a crowd funding site, who says the fans can’t buy and own the club? These sugar daddies scare me, you think they are coming to your aid but they got AIDS.
we will find out this transfer window whether we need new direction or not,
its three years now we are in the money and yes we have bought some descent players but always short and lacking real ambition to be great.
Your Stan Kroenke’s of the world will always come second to those passionate entrepreneurs with huge ego’s and deep deep pockets
but also those same entrepreneur’s can destroy a club like arsenal or Chelsea over night
i say to Silent Stan be a bit more risk taker and buy one or two players which might not work out, look at Man-U they gambled with Angel De Maria but they can sell him to PSG almost for the same price they purchased him
We don;t need the Abramovich model where the club is a play thing that can go t1ts up at anytime. We need an owner who has the capabilities to back the club in the transfer window beyond what the club can pay that term, knowing the club will repay the debt in time. Arsenal isn’t about hand outs from wealthy guys and girls, but some flexibility would be nice to have.
Imagine Benzema was available but we didn’t buy him because we’d spent our budget for this summer? A better owner could pay out of his pocket and say ‘ok that’s coming out of next years budget’. The club is self-sustaining yet still fiercely competitive.
You seems to forget that a whole team can’t be bought in one freaking season ! It took Man City 6years for them to start winning PLs, in less than 2 we’ve already won 2 FA Cups.
I believe why not.
He is ready to buy the club he is a big fan of the club and wants to get us back to glory days.
He is not purchasing arsenal as an extra money venture he wants us to be back at the top with the elite.
His money could help us clear any debt and if him and Wenger work together he could help us shift funds to sign more players of the future. For example went santi retires/ leaves we would have the financial backing to go get Isco (this is an example)
We have to consider the option move with the time and get back to the very very top.
Opinion divide?
I think its all talk when he alludes to throwing his own money behind our team in the way others have done with their clubs. If that were the case well then how could he think lady Bracewells shares too pricy, anyone would know that to be a sound investment.
We are heading in the right direction already, in fact we are very close, so i think its maybe a case of the devil you know.
Look what happened with Monaco now they are having to sell players instead of buying a listers. There has also been cases of wealthy Asians arriving at PL clubs and lower before ruining there perspective clubs. Cardiff, they changed there whole identity from team colours to their crest, and then look at Blackburn, they were a PL club for a long time and in the space of little time they are unheard of.
We know too little about this man to want him on board. He could buy top players but what if they are all of his own choosing. It is also possible that he sees how PL football is for ever getting richer and Arsenal have set themselves up nicely for reaping rewards, and he wants in. We just dont know enough about the man.
It makes no difference what we think either way, the current shareholders wont be seeling up anytime soon unless its at a massively over the top proce. They are happy reaping the rewards of running a steady NOT overtly ambitious ship that turns a healthy profit each year without spending too much or taking any real risks. Why would this guy buy the shares at over inflated process?? he wouldn’t.
That’s That and nothing will change as for you saying we’ll see this closed season well I hope we will but I have to admit that I think what we’ll see is nothing different from usual
Maybe we’ll have one big signing which would be two less than we really need and that signing will be two notches down from who we should really get
sorry to be all negative but Im a realist and an Arsenal supporter for over 40 years so I know what to expect by now.
Here’s the part that makes makes laugh, on one hand you have this Dangote fella talking about when he’s saved his pennies he can launch a takeover…..but Usmanov has plenty of coin to buy Arsenal yet we all know it’s not as simple as that.
If our ownership changes hands I fully expect major shareholder, who also supports the club, Usmanov to have a say in matters before this African guy spouting to the press does. If Dangote was serious he’d have his own slice of Arsenal already.
Money’s not a
problem at Arsenal.
4th place mentality
is the problem.
Yeah, and it worked this year. We finished 3rd. We should aim for 2nd place mentality.
davidnz
Arsenal is run like a real business and not like a competition sport club,
they must show profit every year, it doesn’t have to be a lot but it must be steady and show growth every year,
its those kind of companies worth buying shares from not the ones boom and bust,
so stadium is finished we can finish of our loans of tomorrow if we chose ( which will mean buying no players this season)
so is Arsenal building up to become PLC company like Man-U
He Will Do Well With The Club..He Wants The Club To Trophies But Just Like Usmanov He’s Not A Fan Of Wenger..
Not going to happen anyway. But if such a thing is to happen then what’s important is that the owner not be able to actually lend money to the club. If he wants to donate, invest whatever then that’s cool even with FFP. But you don’t want to turn into a Leeds, Blackburn,Portsmouth when the owner decides he does not like his toy anymore.
Anyway, I find hard to believe Kroenke or Usmanov will sell any of their shares to someone else right now.
I agree Budd
Neither of them wi;; sell they make a tidy and steady profit each year and that’s why the club is run the way it is, regardless of success that doesn’t really count as long as we are in the CL and turn a profit the rest is just gravy
Dangote would transform arsenal into world beaters and end this penny pinching in transfers.The current majority shareholder does not love,football he does not allow Wenger to risk money in big transfers.Wenger is handcuffed in transfers but he cant complain to save his job,
Wenger is a bad in his own way that why he has kept his job for so long without achieving more than 4th and two FA cups, other clubs would have had him out on his arse but Arsenal PLC are happy with his mentality and he adheres to theirs this guy wont buy in cos no one will sell it would be like shooting the golden Goose and that’s NOT going to happen
I don’t want him anywhere near the club, end of story.
The FA would be better of finding out if potent owners of our clubs are fit and proper ie not crooked rather than the easy job of fining jack for enjoying himself.In other words get of their large a***s and administer the FA properly.
There seem to a lot of Millionaires in Nigeria.
I regularly get emails offering me millions of $ if I send them my bank details.
Up for good idea, down for bad.
advice please 🙂
Don’t Do It..Its A Scam,Real Millionaires Won’t Send You Emails Asking For Your Bank Account Details And Yes There A lot Of Millionaires In Nigeria But Those Who Contact You Are Scam Artists They Just Want To Defraud You..Cheers Mate
Well an oil refinery is an enormous, gargantuan thing to build. It will take years. So that will probably mean it will be years before he takes over. Who knows, we may be in entirely different circumstances by then.
The oil refinery plant will be ready before the end of this year
They said the refinery will be ready by 2018..
Now is the worst time for a take over. Only recently have we been able to start spending big on top players. Most importantly, we are in a very strong financial position, a position not reliable on one single source, but many lucrative outlets allow AFC to a stable and self-sufficient business. I’d say if we do not win the league in the next 2-3 years and we do not continue to bring in world class players, then I’d welcome a take over, but I really do not see that happening. Right now I am quite comfortable with how Arsenal is run and I think the board and Wenger have a long term plan they wish to see through. The hard part is over, lets enjoy the fruits of it now.
Well mate I for one don’t see the world class signing coming anytime soon and that means we wont win the league anytime soon, currently we are nearly good enough IF we stay injury free but we ll know that wont happen so we need those two Marquee signings THIS season without them we wont be winning anything soon as our competition WILL be reinforcing this summer
We don’t need a multi-billionaire to be our sugar daddy
We just need Cech, Kondogbia and lacazette which is roughly £70 million. If we sell Podolski, Sanogo, and Campbell for £15, it would be £55 million with £15 million left over from our warchest to pay the salaries
With those three players we can have a real shot at trophies (more than 1) and we will do it without a single Russian/Arab/American Sugardaddy,
@Fredcowardly
Aree 100% BUT I don’t see Wenger doing Zilch at present and I would bet my Ar$e virginity that we wont get Lacazetta or any other top striker and whilst it would be a step in the right direction to get Cech and Kondogbia, without a consistant season long goal scorer it wont make a blind bit of difference.
Id love to be proved wrong but I cant see it
i dont mind if he puts together a interest free financial package, to wipe out the remaining stadium debt form the club in return for a slice of 30% of the shares.
so the club is run evenly by three share holders in stead of just the 2 then if he wants to try and influence the club direction from the boardroom he can, but a full takeover will never happen the board wont allow it they will want stability atm as the club is moving forward in the right direction as is.
The comments I am seeing here would be different if it is a British that offers to take over the club. Some people really need to dig their noses out of thier asses and realize that money doesn’t ask where it comes from, it gets the job done. Year in year out clubs like chealsea, mancity, man u are using Arsenal to scrub the floor yet some people are here exhibing their debasd reasoning entirely centered on which part of the world this fella is coming from. Wake up from your slumber ya all.